Language of Azeri People and Pan-TurkismBy: Mohammad Taghi Sbokddel, January 2004

1. Azarbaijan
The name of Azarbaijan has been one of the most renowned geographical names of
Iran since 2000 years ago. Azar is the same as "Ashur" which means
fire. In Pahlavi inscriptions, Azarbaijan has been mentioned as 'Oturpatekan',
while it has been mentioned Azarbayegan and Azarpadegan in Persian writings. It
is Azarabadegan in Shah Nameh and Arabs knew it as Azarbijan or Adarbijan.

With regard to the emergence of Azarbaijan, the writing by Strabo, the famous
Greek geographer seems to be the most important of all writings.

When the rule of Achaemenid dynasty came to an end, Alexander from Macedonia
conquered Iran. A worrier called Otupart rose in Azarbayegan and prevented that
land, which was part of the Median empire and was known as 'Lesser Mede' to be
captures by Greek worriers. The land was thereafter called Oturpatekan.

Ahmad Kasravi, an Azeri pundit, opined that Oturpat was made up of Otur,
meaning Azar or fire and Pat, which was later corroded to Paad and Baad, which
meant guard.

In June 1918, the dignitaries of Mosavat (equality) Party, established a
government in Caucasus and called it Azerbaijan following suit with policies of
Turks. At that time, the naming gave rise to controversies and some even went
as far as announcing that, "As if Azerbaijan is a land, which has been
divided in two parts; one part lying to the north of Aras river and the other
part lying to the south."

The disputes became so hectic that Azarbayegan proper was called 'Southern
Azerbaijan' while Aran and Shiravan were called northern Azerbaijan to deceive
the Iranian youth.

Mosavat Party whose real name was 'Mosavat Islamic Democratic Party' was
established in 1911 in Baku with the goal of unifying Turks in Asia Minor.

Mosavat Party followed the policies of Pan-Turkists and advocated unity of all
Turk-speaking people.

2. Language of Azeri people
The language spoken in Azerbaijan is one of the dialects of the Persian
language, which was known to us as Azeri tongue.

Ahamd Kasravi has proven that based on evidence, the local language of Azeri
people, at least, to the end of Mogul era (middle of the 8th century after
Hegira) has been Azeri. After that, during a 150-year interval from the time
that Chengiz dynasty became defunct since establishment of Safavids, the Azeri
language was gradually replaced by Turkish dialect.

During recent year, Manouchehr Mortazavi, in an article on the ancient language
of Azerbaijan, had opined that Azeri has been the language of Azerbaijan people
and it has included various dialects.

However, since there has been discrepancies with regard to the original
language of Azerbaijan people, the compendium of research results is as
follows:

Ibn al-Nadim writes in his book al-Fihrist that the language of Iranian people
could be divided in five classes including Pahlavi, Dari, Farsi, Khuzi
(language of people in Khuzestan) and Soriani. Relying on what Ibn Muqaffa'
said, he opined that Dari was the language of courtiers while Farsi was the
language of priests and scientists and the language of people of Fars; Khuzi was
the language that kings and dignitaries used in their intimate talks. Soriani
was the language of people of Iraq while Pahlavi was spoken by people of
Isfahan, Rey, Hamedan, Mah (Mede), Nahavand and Azerbaijan. His writing goes as
such:

"Ibn Muqaffa' said: Iranian languages are five: Pahlavi, Dari, Farsi,
Khuzi and Soriani. Pahlavi is attributed to Pahleh, which includes five regions
of Isfahan, Rey, Hamedan, Mah, Nahavand and Azerbaijan. Dari is the language of
cities in Madaen and courts of kings. Dari is eastern. Farsi is the language of
priests and scientists. Dari is mostly spoken by people of Khorassan, Balkh and
some regions in Fars. Khuzi is spoken by kings and dignitaries, but Soriani is
the language of people of Iraq."

Out of the abovementioned languages, only two languages, including Dari, spoken
in east Iran including Khorassan, and Pahlavi that was spoken by people in
Isfahan, Rey, Hamedan, Nahavand and Azerbaijan are of concern here.

The authors belonging to the first centuries after Hegira have called the
language of people of Azerbaijan as 'Azeri Pahlavi' and sometimes 'Azeri' and
maintained that the said language was different from the language spoken in
east Iran.

However, the difference was not so big as to make them incapable of comprehending
what other peoples said. Nasser Khosrow in his itinerary says, "I arrived
in Tabriz in 438 A.H.... I saw a poet in Tabriz named Ghetran. He was a good
poet, but could not speak Persian correctly. He came to me with poetry books of
Manjik and Daqiqi and asked any word that he could not understand..."

I presume that Nasser Khosrow meant Dari Persian which was known to him but
some of whose words were not known to Khorassani poet. Marquat??, the famous
Iranian scholar has written that, "Pahlavi language is, in fact, the same
as Azeri language."

Yagoubi lived in the third century A.H. In his book, al-Boldan, he says the
language of Azeri people was "Azeri Pahlavi".

Abu Abdollah Bashari Moqaddasi in his book divides Iran into eight climatic regions
noting, "The language of these regions is Persian; however, some of them
speak Dari and some complicated; and all those dialects are called
Persian."

Masoudi believed that Pahlavi, Dari and Azeri were of the same origin and
combination of their works was the same and all of them were considered among
Farsi dialects.

Abu Abdollah Mohammad ibn Ahmad Kharazmi, who lived in the fourth century A.H.,
attributes Persian language to people of Fars and the language of priests and
believes that Dari was the language of courtiers. With regard to Pahlavi
language, he writes:

"Pahlavi is one of the Iranian languages used by kings. The work has been
attributed to Pahleh, which encompasses five lands: Isfahan, Rey, Hamedan,
Nahavand and Azerbaijan."

Estakhri says in his book, al-Masalek and al-Mamalek that the language of
people of Azerbaijan is Arabic and Persian.

I believe that despite its tremendous pressure, Arabic could not overwhelm
Persian and was rejected first in Khorassan and then in other parts of Iran.

Eranski??, the famous Russian scholar writes: "After pushing Arabic back
in Khorassan and other regions, Persian did the same in other areas."

Two factors were influential in this regard. Firstly, Arabs were controlling a
wide empire from Sir Darya River to Spain and their dominance in Iran was not
so much as to be able to overwhelm the Iranian element. Secondly, the conflict
between Iranians and Arabs, especially in political, military and literary
fields was intense.

Ibn Hauqal writes, "The language of people of Azerbaijan and most people
of Arminiyeh is Persian and Arabic if rife too. There are few merchants and
landlords that speak Persian and who don't know Arabic."

Two points are worthy of mention: Firstly, the language of Azerbaijan people
was Persian. Secondly, Arabic was not common among villages and lay people and
only part of people knew it.

Ibn Hauqal says the languages spoken by people of Armenia and Aran were part of
Persian. He writes, "Some tribes from Armenia and the like speak languages
that are like Armenian. The same is true about people in Dabil and Nahvi
(Nakhichevan). The language of Barza'eh people is Arani and the mountain known
as Caucasus is theirs around which heathens with various languages live."

Yaghout Hemavi, who lived in the sixth and seventh century A.H. says with
regard to the language of Azeris, "They speak a language called Azeri and
nobody can understand it but themselves."

There were many dialects in Persia that were not intelligible to anybody but
those who spoke them. One of them was the dialect of Talesh people in Gilan,
which is unintelligible to people from other regions.

Hamdollah Mostofi, who lived in the seventh and eighth centuries A.H., refers
to language of people of Maragheh and writes, "Their language is altered
Pahlavi."

With regard to people of Talesh and their language, he writes, "People
there are white and follow the religion of Imam Shafei. Their language is
Pahlavi with Jilani dialect," he noted.

Homam Tabrizi, the renowned poet of Azerbaijan who lived in the 7th and 8th
centuries A.H. has written many poems in Azeri Pahlavi.

Ezzoddin Adel ibn Yousof Tabrizi, who lived during 8th and 9th centuries A.H.
has also written poems in Azeri dialect of Pahlavi.

There is no sign of Turkish words in those poems.

Undoubtedly, the dialect of Azeri Pahlavi was spoken in Azerbaijan until the
advent of Safavid period, but it became obsolete in villages and cities since
the middle of the Safavid period and only remained in hard-to-pass regions.

After this introduction, it is clear that if some try through sophistication to
prove that Azerbaijan has been inhabited by Turks from old times, and it was
only afterwards that some Aryans speaking Iranian languages conquered there
accidentally, their claims would be nothing but purposeful lies.

Now it has become evident that the Turkish language rife in Azerbaijan, has
been the language of what people from the start and how it has been imposed on
people living there. It is ridiculous that some people consider it as the
mother tongue of Azeri people and invite the people to replace it for the
official Persian language. It is obvious that no learned people will get
themselves down to forsake the language of Firdawsi, Sa'adi, Mowlavi and Hafiz
and trade it for the faulty, backward language that was brought in by the
marauding Turkmans. This is a foreign language that did not belong to the
language of Iranian ancestors and was imposed on them.

The zealous people of Azerbaijan know these facts and will never follow a group
of gullible guys who are stooges of other people.

We hope to prevent this vice to happen to people of Azerbaijan and we are sure
than they know better than anybody else the main purpose of those who try to
propagate it. We are sure that the Truth will always overcome Vice and
demonstrate its power.

3. Pan-Turkism
Pan-Turkism movements reverberated in Baku since many years ago, or exactly
since 1908, when young Turks seized power in Istanbul. During those years the
putsch carried out by Unity and Progress Committee ended despotic rule of
Sultan Abdolhamid and Turkist tendencies substituted Islamic school of thought.

The vanguards of Pan-Turkism stemmed from Turk peoples in the Russian empire
that were in turn influenced by Pan-Slavism, which were formed in Russia during
19th century. In 1904, Yousof Anghchur Oghlu, a Tartar from Russia, which was
later known as Yousof Aghchur, published a treatise titled, "Three Methods
of Politics", which gradually gained importance as the manifest of
Pan-Turkism.

During World War I, Pan-Turkist activities in Baku, which was dominated by
Tsars of Russia, was limited to publication of periodicals. What is the main
purpose of such periodicals as Yeni Foyouzat (New Bounties) and Shalaleh that
while loyal to Tsars had made refining Turkish language in Caucasus their main
objective and now laud Pan-Turkism and its worse alternative Pan-Turanism?

The theorists of Pan-Turkism believe that all ethnic groups and nationalities
from Eastern Europe to Great Wall of China, which enjoy language, religious and
traditional commonalties are, in fact, a single nation and should come together
as a big nation and fulfill their historical mission in the face of other big
civilizations such as European, Arab, Indian and Chinese civilizations. Their
views, however, cannot be supported by scientific realities. Most great nations
are made up of a single dominant race or, at least, ethnic variation of that
race. An example is the United States of America, that while not older than two
and a half centuries, is mainly made up of people from Anglo-Saxon or German
stock. In the same way, people in Canada, Australia and New Zealand mainly hail
from north or south European origin.

Pan-Turks claim that all people from beyond the straits to the end of Central
Asia, ... are peoples from a single large nation, which have been divided due
to historical injustice and their historical duty is to come together under a
single flag.

They produce several reasons, the most important of which is the common
language. They claim that all those languages were originally a single language
that were later changed due to unfavorable conditions.

This claim is quite baseless, because those various languages could be divided
in several categories:

1. Tribes known as Turks were serving Samanid kings in Central Asia during the
2nd and 3rd centuries A.H. and then they accepted Islam and began serving
Abbasid caliphs and then established Ghaznavid dynasty and ruled Afghanistan
and half of Iran.

2. Oghuz or Ghoz tribes invaded Iran from Central Asia and in addition go
Ghaznavid, they did away with such Iranian dynasties as Al-e Bouyeh and Al-e
Ziar and established Seljuk government, which in addition to the whole Iranian
plateau ruled Asia Minor and Iraq, Arabs and the current day's Syria up to
Mediterranean and even conquered Baghdad and made the Abbasid caliphs their
stooge.

3. Mogul tribes, led by Chengiz invaded the whole Iran, Asia Minor and the
Arabian Iraq and established the rule of Mogul ilkhans.

4. Tartar tribes first conquered the northern parts of the Central Asia and
northern coasts of the Caspian Sea and then bolstered their forces under the
command of Teimur and attacked Iran, Iraq and Caucasus to establish Gurkani
government.

Therefore, the claims that all the above peoples were of a single origin, that
is the land referred to as Turan, is baseless.

Pan-Turks go as far as introducing Mohammad Hossein Shahriar, the famous
Iranian poet as follower of Turkish poets. Even if they gather a number of
Azeris educated in Istanbul or Ankara, under 'Urmia Conference' and call for
separation of Azerbaijan from Iran and its annexation to Turkey, they will not
be able to dampen patriotic sentiments of Azeri people.

Even today, the difference among the language of those tribes referred to by
Pan-Turks is so wide that Turkmens do not understand the language of Kyrkyz
people and Uzbeks do not comprehend what people of Azerbaijan say. If such
differences did not exit, there is no reason to assume that people of Iran's
Azerbaijan are from a single origin with people of Anatolia because, firstly,
Turkish language was imposed on people of Azerbaijan since a couple of
centuries ago and before that they spoke Persian. Secondly, profound historical
ties that date back to the time of Zoroaster have linked Azerbaijan with other
parts of Iran so strongly that they cannot be taken apart. History has proven
that anytime that foreigners hatched a plot to take Azerbaijan away from Iran,
the people of Azerbaijan formed the front line of struggle to thwart that plot.